Studying Rituals: How to Set Yourself Up for Success!

Thoughts | Jennifer Li

1. Find Your Motivation

Let’s set the scene. Dim lights, candle lit. Paper-filled desk. The time is arbitrary yet familiar. The time is a feeling that has come back to haunt you. It is a time your body recognizes before your brain: too late. No more putting it off. Sensation. Gears start turning. Invisible strings drag this body to a standing position, tenses its muscles, and jumpstarts its heart. Oh, the heart’s really going now. Now. You must address the now that has been clawing away at you. The perfect time to start is when the end is near.

2. Plan Ahead

The body possesses an empty mind (all the better to fill) and a trembling hand. It mumbles to itself, “You know the way out of this. You know that way is through. You know the only tool for it is you.” It calls itself a tool. It calls itself many other unsavoury names. You call it a sacrifice. I call it retribution.

3. Get Rid of Distractions

Cryptic symbols from a buzzing, glowing screen fill the head. The harried mind grapples with those wriggling things, difficult concepts and complex ideas, and files them away in a special cabinet. It promises to keep them intact and encourages the taking of a break, but its betrayal burns a hole in a shelf at the top. The body knows better. Eyes scan the glowing screen until pain creeps along their wet perimeter. Fingers bring another caffeinated drink to a dry mouth. Teeth worry and worry and worry and worry the skin off the lips. The mouth chants formulas and foreign tongues. You’re holding yourself hostage. And the worst part is you’re thankful that it’s happening.

4. Take Care of Yourself

Either at the end of the night, the start of the morning, or sometime in between is when this ritual ends. The eyes do not know what they are seeing. The hand does not know what it is writing. The mind only knows… The mind only knows that it is tired. We are tired. The candle extinguishes as something higher takes the mind. Black out. You are not in control anymore…

5. Embrace Confidence

BEEP-BEEP-b-beep-b-beep goes your favourite alarm. Slumped over your desk, you unglue your eyelids and tilt your head skyward. Drool chills and refreshes your cheek. 6 AM. Just enough time to head to your morning exam. As you take one last glance at your notebook, you spot odd symbols crawling along the margins and eventually filling up the pages. No, it’s not calculus, it’s occult. You don’t remember writing these down. Maybe some scribble study method? Forget it, you need to get to EX 200.

You ace the exam.